Venezuela and coal

In 2006 Venezuela produced approximately 7.4 million tonnes of bituminous coal, according to the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS).

In a 2006 review of coal mining in Venezuela, the USGS stated that "In 2007, Carbones Nueva N aricual C.A. planned to reopen the Naricual coal underground mine, which had been a producer in the 1980s. In 2006, Peabody Energy Corp. of the United States acquired Excel Coal L td. of Australia and its 51% interest in Excelven S.A., which owned 96.7% equity interest in Cosila Complejo Siderurgico Del Lago S.A. A joint venture headed by Alpha Natural Resources, Inc. of the United States held 24.5% interest in Excelven. Cosila owned Las Carmelitas coal project in the State of Z ulia and coal export facilities in the Port of Palmarejo. In 2004, the Government had expressed interest in developing a coal-powered electricity-generating plant to supplement the national electricity supply, much of which was generated by hydroelectric plants."

Coal production
The USGS listed the sole operating coal mine in 2006 as being the CoalCarbones del Guasare, S.A operation. The joint venture partners were listed as being Carbozulia S.A. with a 49% stake and Peabody Energy and Anglo Coal with a 25.5% stake each. The mine is located near Paso Diablo in Zulia State in the Guasare coal basin and has a rated production capacity of 8 million tonnes a year.

Peabody Energy, which refers to the mine as the Paso Diablo Mine, states on its website that the mine "is a 6.6 to 8.0 million ton-per-year surface operation that exports coal for electricity generators and steelmakers in North America and Europe. Paso Diablo utilizes the truck-shovel method to access approximately 175 million tonnes of reserves (in the current coal concession) in the Guasare coal basin ... Most coal travels approximately 90 kilometers to the port at Santa Cruz de Mara on Lake Maracaibo ... Peabody markets a proportional amount of the mine's output to customers of seaborne coal seeking high-Btu, low sulfur thermal coal for electricity generation and PCI coal for use in steel production."

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